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Toyota to discontinue Innova diesel for ‘Petrol Hybrid’ from 2022?

Written by Parichay Malvankar

Now this is very, very interesting. Almost nobody considers buying the Toyota Innova Crysta with a petrol engine in majority here in the Indian market. It is the diesel engine which dominates the sales, and hence, the Innova Crysta from Toyota in India comes with 2 oil burning motors. Now, rumours are doing the rounds that Toyota might discontinue diesel engines for the Innova MPV from 2022 in favour of petrol hybrid motors.

Toyota and Honda are two brands which believe that hybrids are the stepping stones towards electric mobility which is still a distant reality. Toyota already has the Camry hybrid on sale in India, and is willing to consider an Innova Crysta model with a petrol hybrid powertrain. This is not happening any time soon, almost 3 years for this to happen. So expect the next-generation of the Innova Crysta to drop the diesel engines.

Considering the governments push to EVs, and complemented by hybrid engines in the meanwhile, Toyota might be willing to exit the diesel car market slowly, but steadily. With BSVI, the diesel engines are going to get more expensive with the DPF and LNT hardware going under the hood. The petrol hybrid engines will meet or exceed even the future emission norms, and since the Innova Crysta is the bread and butter model for Toyota in India, it will continue on sale even after the diesel engines are taken off.

The all-new Innova, a new generation model will be introduced by Toyota in India around 2021-22. In the Indian market, the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms and Real-World Driving Emissions test will be implemented in their 2nd phase from 2022 and 2023 respectively.

As of now, the Innova Crysta gets a 2,694cc, 4-cylinder, DOHC 16 Valve, Dual VVT-i petrol engine producing 166 PS of power @ 5200 RPM and 245 Nm of torque @ 4000 RPM matched to a 5-speed manual or 6-speed automatic gearbox. The engine also offers Eco & Power modes, but this motor is not really very efficient. Fuel efficiency figures in the real world are below 10 kmpl. It will be interesting to see if the engines during the hybrid phase downsize in overall capacity and still compensate with equal or more power backed by the electric motor.

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